Salad to go. Wash endive leaves. Fill the broad end with a teaspoon of your kid's favorite prepared salad. Wash butter lettuce leaves, selecting the smaller more pliable leaves. Spread out the lettuce leaf and put a tablespoon of salad on the end nearest you. Roll the leaf forward covering the salad. Tuck the ends of the leave under as if you were rolling up a burrito. Lightly fill celery stalk with cream cheese. Press dried cranberries or raisins into the cheese. Cut into child bite sized pieces. For a change use flavored cream cheese.



Child sized pizzas. Use refrigerator biscuits. Lightly flour a board. Roll each biscuit flat doubling the size of the biscuit. Place biscuits on cookie sheets. Spread with a teaspoon of tomato sauce, pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce. An alternative is to use a slice of fresh tomato. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake as package directs.

A veggie platter and dip can be made special by using baby vegetables. Carrots, summer squash, patty pan squash, string beans, both yellow and green should be blanched by immersing in boiling water for one minute and then in immediately in an ice bath. Add snap pea pods, grape tomatoes, both red and yellow, and boiled baby potatoes.

Mini tacos are fun and easy. Use the corn chips that are made for dipping and have a bowl shape. Fill with a teaspoon of cooked taco meat, a bit of refried beans and top with shredded cheese. Bake until the cheese just melts.

Usually the challenge with kids and desserts is to stop the kids from only eating the sweet stuff. Here are a few suggestions to carry the mini theme forward. Use small cookies like vanilla snaps or mini chocolate chips cookies. Place a tablespoon of ice cream on the flat side of one cookie and cover with the flat side of another cookie to make a sandwich then freeze in a plastic container.

Use a medium size sugar cookie, about a 3 inch diameter. Frost with vanilla pudding and top with slices of fresh strawberries for a mini strawberry tartlet. Make different varieties: Use chocolate pudding and raspberries, lemon pudding and fresh blueberries.

Jello jigglers are always a hit. How about a jigller flag? Make up three batches of jigglers, one of blue, and two of red. The blue jigglers should be set in a square pan about 9 inches by 9 inches. Using a star cookie cutter, cut out star shapes and remove from the square pan. Carefully place the pan in warm water to loosen the jello from the pan. Then put the square shape with the cut out stars on a white rectangular serving plate.

The red jello should be cut into stripes and placed on the serving plate leaving white spaces between the stripes. Place the cut out stars on a separate plate.

Children will love you for making them feel special at your Fourth of July party